Update, 12/4: El Al and their pilots have now signed an agreement to end wet-lease flights, shorten flight times, raise pilot salaries, and end the current labor conflict.
Originally posted on 11/27:
El Al has been under heavy labor strife of late with lots of cancelled and heavily delayed flights.
Pilots blame the company’s use of wet-leased aircraft where they outsource their flights to Spanish or Portuguese carriers. Customers have not been happy to buy tickets on El Al, only to wind up on other airlines.
Arutz Sheva is reporting that El Al and their pilots have come to a preliminary agreement where pilots will receive a pay raise and El Al will end their wet leases. Pilots will also agree to shorter breaks when abroad and to fly on shorter routes that will shorten flight times by as much as 45 minutes between NYC and Tel Aviv, as apprently they have been taking longer routes in order to increase their hours on the clock.
Hopefully the agreement will be signed shortly and the service disruptions will quickly come to an end.
Now if only they would fix their frequent flyer program, Matmid…
HT: Chaikel
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22 Comments On "Report: El Al Will Cease Wet-Lease Flights!"
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BH
Wow, pilots took intentionally longer routes? Sounds like place for a class action law suit
@Moe:
Suing your employees rarely works out well…
Great news! 45 minutes shorter.. btw amex biz plat holders can now buy cash tickets for half the points. Let’s say now with the cyber Monday special you can get an economy round trip ticket nyc-tlv for 35,000 MR points…
@Moe: Always wondered why the flightaware times and the actual times for arrival never matched. This makes perfect sense now.
I’m flying on Sunday… any hope that I’ll be back on El Al? Can’t afford another surprise stopover in Paris…
@Dealer: you dont get 50% off on el al only on youre selected airline which has to be a US airline
@Dan: I assume he meant for the consumers to sue the airline and/or the pilots.
@Dealer:
You don’t get 50% back on LY Y tickets with Amex
@Dealer: Not really. It works only for Biz or First TIX not econ. If you have a Black Card THEN it would work.
@high end hobo: Yes you do. AMEX BIZ PLAT flying first or biz.
@Michael:
Both @high end hobo and the OP specifically mentioned coach tix
@Michael:
Y=Economy
@MosheD: @ Elya. My apologies. That’s correct. However the amex black card will cover LY Y with 50% back.
@ anon lets guess the over/under on how many people have the centurion card
@dan will that include new airplanes with wifi?
@Dan: I meant for consumers to sue the airline – the airline certainly was aware and did not fire the pilots..
Correct, @AnonymousUser @hvaces42
Dan, any leads on where/how to complain for compensation for two canceled and rescheduled El AL flights (family of 8?) Thank you!
@Y: good luck finding someone to speak to
@Dealer:
-1
How soon can we safely book LY flights?
I heard the El Al pilots make over $350K per year. That must be the best job in Israel and they are asking for a pay raise? Where do I sign up?